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Fast facts about some of the world’s most famous companies

There are more than twice as many gun stores in America as McDonald’s restaurants. By 2016, there were 14,098 McDonald’s and 51,438 gun retailers.

Microsoft made $16,005 in revenue in its first year of operation.

The first product that Sony came out with was the rice cooker.

Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.

Amazon has a two pizza rule, which stipulates that no meeting should involve more people than could be fed by two pizzas.

The search engine Google got its name from the word ‘googol’, which refers to the number 1 with 100 zeros after it.

Google favicon

YouTube was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005. In November 2006, it was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion.

Although YouTube has become the second largest search engine – Google being the largest – it contributes only 8% to Google’s total kitty.

Linkedin was one of the early social media companies; it was founded 2002, long before Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2006). Linkedin was bought by Microsoft in 2016.

The “L.L.” in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood.

Walt Disney’s autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo.

When Scott Paper Company first started manufacturing toilet paper they did not put their name on the product because of they thought it might be embarrassing.

SONY was originally called Totsuken.

The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.

Club Direct, a travel insurance company in Britain, provides insurance plans for protection from falling coconuts.

Harrods, the luxury shopping mall in London, has 3 private wells that supply its water.

If WalMart was classified as a country, it would be the 24th most productive country in the world.

Walmart is the largest employer 21 US states.

World’s first travel agencies: Cox & Kings, founded in 1758, and Thomas Cook, founded in 1860.

In Australia, Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s.

Originally, BMW was an airplane engine manufacturer.

Du Pont Inc. started as a small gun powder mill in New Jersey.

The first product that the toy company Mattel came out with was picture frames.

Nintendo’s first products were playing cards.

The creator of the NIKE swoosh symbol apparently was paid only $35 for the design.

The Zip Code 12345 is assigned to General Electric in Schenectady, New York.

The MGM Grand Hotel of Las Vegas washes 15,000 pillowcases every day.

The oldest patented company logo is the red triangle of Bass beers.

90% of all restaurants fail during their first year of operation. On average, 80% of all businesses fail within a year and 60% of the survivors will close down within their next 5 years.

The largest taxi company in the world, Uber, does not own any taxis. The largest book dealer in the world, Amazon, does not own any books. The largest media company in the world, Google, does not produce any content. The largest hospitality business in the world, AirBnB, does not own any hotels. When will you launch your own company?